Walking in Epping Forest

To help banish the winter blues, I decided to organise a walk in Epping Forest for my birthday. We followed most of this route, although we started a bit further north at Leytonstone and in the end, finished a bit further south at Theydon Bois. I'm guessing it was about 19km all up and although we tried to follow this excellent 1970s guide, GPS was our saviour on the day as even though I'd read that the route wasn't very well-marked, I wasn't expecting there to be no markers at all! I also think, given that we were doing it in the middle of winter, the paths probably weren't as visible as they may be in drier conditions...

We started bright-eyed and bushy tailed, despite some unexpected rain slightly dampening the party (although happily it got sunny later on).

After a bit of a false start (hence the need to bring out the GPS) we got back on track and picked up the pace. Well, that's not true. We tried to pick up the pace but the mud was just a bit too much!

Here we are a bit over half-way making the most of a pretty lake for a photo opportunity, and me contemplating whether I'd just stop where I was and sleep there the night...

 

And finally the end! It was pretty tough going for us city slickers, particularly given that my terrible boots ripped my heels to shreds (I'll refrain from posting that particularly unsavoury photo), and I've definitely got some sore legs now, but definitely landed on the side of fun overall. 

I'd also arranged for everyone, as well as some other friends, to head to a local pub for drinks and dinner - our large group of 20 mostly mud-covered hikers definitely stood out like a sore thumb amongst the extremely well-groomed and glamorous other patrons! I hadn't even thought we'd be heading into Essex territory (epitomised by a TV show called 'TOWIE' for those in NZ) so our muddy trousers being out of place was the understatement of the year so far... Cultural appreciation was had by all though - we'll have to go back when we're slightly cleaner I think...

So, overall I'd recommend walking in Epping Forest, but probably not again in winter! Maybe we'll head back there when all the leaves are fresh and that lovely new Spring green. 

Birthday chronicle

Despite being told by a friend that 34 is a bit of a 'nothing birthday', the fact that it's winter over in London means that I think it's all the more important to make a bit of a fuss about a birthday that you're used to spending wafting about in the glorious heat of summer.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough that the terrible weather forecast didn't really arrive (think torrential rain etc.) and was instead gifted with a beautifully sunny and crisp day. To start with, I got the coveted front seat of the bus which meant I got a stunning 360 view of the Thames from my favourite bridge in London - Waterloo. You really get a sense of how the river bends from Waterloo Bridge, and you can see nearly all of the city's most iconic structures. Here's the view looking east where you can see St Pauls, and the Gherkin hiding behind the 'Cheese Grater' (love the random names of all the buildings):

The reason I got the bus in was because I'd made an Italian apple cake and didn't want to get it all mushed up in my panniers. Here's a half-finished shot of the cake - it took six apples and it was pretty delicious if I do say so myself!

After an extremely decadent lunch of leftover lobster mac'n'cheese from Christmas (which, when separated from all the other rich food we had at Christmas, was discovered to be insanely cheesy), it was time for a quick birthday visit to the bees. Fortunately our remaining hive is doing fine (no further sign of varroa which is great) and we're looking forward to seeing the entries to the beehive painting competition, due next Friday. Here's a birthday selfie I took from the roof looking south over the Thames where you can see the Shard in the background:

And then to top it all off, Adrian took me out for a fabulously fancy dinner at Roux at the Landau (in the Langham hotel in central London). We had a glass of champagne, delicious bread, an amuse bouche (cheesy choux buns), starter, main, dessert and petit fours (quince jelly, rum and raisin macaron and handmade chocolate). It was excellent and I would highly recommend it.

The final photo above includes a shot of Broadcasting House, the main BBC building on Regent Street. I've gone past it so many times but never really stopped to look. It looks great all lit up at night I thought.

So there you have it, a chronicle of a birthday. As I said to Adrian, hopefully by the time my next birthday rolls around I'll be a Dr! Viva timing dependent obviously, but here's hoping!